What is
the objective of the IndischePartij? ... The answer is found in Article 2 of the
Constitution, which reads as follows: "the purpose of the IndischePartij is
to awaken the patriotism of all the people of the Indies for the country which
feeds them; and to induce them to co-operate on the basis of political equality
in order to bring this Indies fatherland to prosperity and to prepare its
people for independence ... " Let us begin [by explaining] the last
words, which have caused so much fear: "to prepare the people for
independence". I doubt whether there is much to fear from these words. In
fact we are doing nothing else than subscribing to the government programme.
Is it not true that the government in semi-official and perhaps also official
statements [has indicated that it] actually desires to gradually develop the
colonies to the same level as the mother country? What else can this mean
politically than that the colonies will be prepared for statehood? What type of
state? Is only self-government envisaged, which in a colonial situation means
something very different from independence? Or is perhaps the new state to
remain under the sovereignty of the mother country, whatever mother country
this may be? Of course [the latter] cannot be true. Unless the colonial
political programme, the colonial political task that the mother country has
taken upon itself, is a fraud; unless we are given a stack of marked cards; and
unless there are dishonest intentions, a mother country that advertises its
colonial rule in such a way cannot mean anything else than that the final
objective of its policy will be to grant independence. The government should
therefore have no objection to our programme. But if she did object, we would
have shown up her [real] intentions. And if we were forced to change this
aspect of our programme, there would still be sufficient time to do so.
Furthermore, we would know then that we were fooled in believing that the
government was honest. We would have forced the government of the Indies to
take a public stand ... And we would then no longer have to doubt that ... we
would be refused our civil rights always ...

I have been asked whether the IndischePartij is
evolutionary or revolutionary ... The penetration of every new idea brings with
it reforms. As we plan to put an end once and for all to the colonial
situation, the IndischePartij
is definitely revolutionary … Revolutionary action enables people to achieve
their objectives quickly. Surely this is not immoral ... The IndischePartij can
safely be called revolutionary. Such a word does not frighten us ...

[The
next point raised by DouwesDekker
was the creation of an Indies nationalism based on the national unity of all races in the
colony. Pointing to Austria-Hungary, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States, DouwesDekker argued that a national multi-racial society could
also be achieved in the Indies.] Truly, it should not be so very difficult to imagine such
a unity, at least not for those Indiers who are of
mixed blood. I admit that it would be more difficult for Europeans, but also
among them some can be found who can be put up as examples to the majority.
There is a difference in the way in which Indiers of
mixed blood and Europeans look at the pure Indiers,
the natives. The Europeans, that is the best and noblest among them, consider
natives persons intelligent people, who after higher intellectual training are
perfectly capable of becoming a great credit to humanity. The Indiers of mixed blood, however, should see a little more
in them. They should consider the natives as their half-brothers. They will
find in the character of the natives so many traits that are similar to their
own. After all they are themselves partly native, and an Asiatic, Eastern
people. There is no doubt that if the natives are educated both morally and
intellectually and are granted equal political rights and equality before the
law, a general intellectual association will come about that will make the idea
of a united people possible ...

[Turning
again to the problem of the pluralistic colonial society DouwesDekker argues that national unity is possible.] How
can the fraternization of the Indies races and subgroups occur? This is only possible through
intellectual development. Economic differences, varying interests, yes, even
class differences will to a certain extent remain, but racial differentiation
will and must disappear. An intellectually developed person does not ask for
the place where one was born. Only the ruling classes with their stupid
prejudices do this because in accentuating racial divisions they see a means to
maintain their privileged position ... Reason reaches across all racial
barriers. People with the same education are attracted to each other. A people is divided into several strata because of different
levels of intellectual development. The evidence for this is to be found in our
own society. We have friends among the natives, who we feel are in no respect
below us intellectually. Do we in our dealings with them notice their race
perhaps? ...

There is nothing we need so much as
self-assurance and self-confidence. We must get rid of our timidity. It is a
hindrance to us, it damages us. On the contrary, we must feel in us a strong
sense of our own worth, a realization that we are not inferior to anybody. Then
there will develop in us a strong moral pride in being ourselves, which will
disdainfully suppress in us every desire to put ourselves forwards as different
from what we really are ... This will prevent us from becoming renegades.
Renegades are small, miserly people who only deserve our contempt. Every Indier should be staunch and proud of being an Indier. He should be proud that he can and may be himself
... When a mother country during long centuries of colonial rule has had no
other objective than to exploit and squeeze its colony dry for its own benefit,
and when in all these long centuries ... it has not succeeded in accomplishing
its task of creating a nation, then its colonial policy and its colonial
morality are rotten. And it would be in the cause of morality to push down what
is on the point of collapsing from internal decay. This is of course what the IndischePartij aims at in its
struggle against racial superiority and racial discrimination ... It will give
the final push to make the tree of racial discrimination crash to earth ... But
when Indiers of mixed blood complain about this racial
superiority they must take care not to become guilty themselves of the same sin
with respect to the natives. They must realize that artificially inculcated
ideas of belonging to the ruling classes do by no means give them the right to
look down on a class of Indiers with whom they are
bound together with unbreakable chains ...

The IndischePartij does not support any particular religion.
The IndischePartij is of
the opinion that religion should remain outside the scope of our and any other
political organization ... The IndischePartij will struggle against all expressions of religious sectarianism
and all attempts to create religious hate. Instead it must preach the religion
of brotherhood ...

[DouwesDekker also stresses the
need for a more Indonesia-centric education.] …

Equality
of all races before the law was an important platform in the programme of the IndischePartij.] The abolition
of legal inequality will cause very great problems. But no problem can be too
big to keep us from acting justly ... Taxation legislation will have to be
completely revised because the natives, that is the Indiers
with least capital at their disposal, pay a great deal more than the prosperous
whites. Under the existing system the emphasis is on taxing poverty and only as
an afterthought does one think about the satchels filled to the brim with gold
... The abolition of legal inequality will also result in a change in the
judicial system. Some experts warn against such a
reorganization. One does not know what to do with the adat [customary Indonesian] law. But there are also experts
of equally high standing who advocate the introduction of a uniform legal
system….

Legal
inequality also exists with respect to land ownership. There was once a big
loudmouth who declared that it was a feather in the cap of the Dutch nation
that it had left the natives undisturbed in the possession of their land and
had protected this land against alienation ... In reality it is the big
capitalists who have enjoyed the loving care of all successive governments ...
The natives if they have to suffer from hunger can now at least do so in their
own dilapidated huts. By God Almighty, it must be a great feeling to starve in
your own house ... Why then are the people not prosperous if the possession of
land is hailed as such a source of riches ... ? Why
... do the natives earn in proportion no more from their land than a tradesman?
... If the natives desire to obtain the same rights enjoyed by the other more
privileged groups of the population, then they must from their side also be
prepared to share exclusive rights to land with everybody who complies with the
conditions laid down by law. I cannot see why an Indier
of mixed blood may not be the owner of land in the same way as a native ...

[The IndischePartij demands the right for Indiers
to defend their own country.] What is our purpose in training the Indiers to defend themselves? It is nothing less than a
patriotic duty which they should fulfil and which
they should be granted. At present we are not capable of defending our own
country. Why not? Only because the Netherlands nation is apparently so convinced
of its shortcomings in the fulfilment of its colonial
task that it does not dare to put its trust in the gratitude of the people. The
government is afraid of us and will take great care to prevent us from getting
arms in our hands ...

[The IndischePartij also
condemned the pluralistic nature of the colonial education system.] At present
we have separate schools for Europeans, for Chinese, for natives … The IndischePartij wants
a uniform education system, one type of education for everybody ... The white
children can learn a great deal in all fields from the darker-coloured children. The native children are much keener to
learn; they are much quieter than the white children ...